After surviving the first two levels of Babidi's ship and
having Dabura's full power ready to be released, can Gohan
win his battle to allow them to move on?

Lets find out...

The episode starts off with the final match of the tournament
between Number 18 and Hercule. At first, Hercule is scared
as %$&@ of being beaten by a woman and being embarrassed
in front of his loyal fans. Instead, however, he decides to
act cool and tough, but in actuality, he's still a chicken.

Hercule knows that she'd beat him in an instant, so he starts
to think of a way out of his predicament. Without any time
to think, though, Number 18 grabs him into a brutal headlock.
He thinks it's all over and even begs for his life, but Number
18 has different plans.

Her proposed plan is for her to intentionally lose the fight,
have him give her the ten million zeni (currency), and have
him give her an extra ten million from his own pocket. He
agrees, seeing no other way out of it without ruining his
reputation.

Oh boy...

The (fight)-wink-wink begins with Hercule throwing his most
powerful punches. Obviously he's trying his best, but it doesn't
harm Number 18 the least bit. She just pretends to be in severe
pain, flying all over the ring from his beating.

Some non-important talk between the two fighters goes on,
but eventually the fight comes to an end.

Number 18 tells him to attack her with his most powerful
attack that will end the fight. Hercule does his Megaton punch
move, and the android doesn't move a muscle when he hits her
square in the face. About fifteen seconds later, though, she
flies out of the ring, and the crowd is amazed. No one understands
how she could've stood there and with delay, be thrown back.

Hercule claims that he has been perfecting that technique
for ten years. {I spilled my drink all over me}

After he wins, he shows off again with the crowd's full support.
Number 18 tells him that she'll see him tomorrow for the money
or kill him if he doesn't pay.
We are now taken back to Trunks and Goten who are quite upset
that they were disqualified from the tournament. After some
whining and yelling, Goten spots Videl flying back to the
tournament. They fly over to her and she takes some time to
explain the situation to Trunks and Goten...

After having heard that an evil sorcerer was responsible,
they jump for joy because they now have the chance to save
the world. Immediately, they leave for Babidi's ship leaving
Videl in a daze.

Goku, Gohan Vegeta, and the Supreme Kai are waiting for the
next fighter to come out of the door. The group discusses
how Gohan isn't as strong as he used to be when he fought
Cell.

The Kai is amazed that these Saiyans are not even at their
full power. He doesn't understand how people from this lower
world could have so much power and him not knowing.

Suddenly, Dabura shows up in the third level doorway. The
Supreme Kai is left without words. He doesn't know why Babidi
would send his strongest fighter for the third level. He highly
doubts that Gohan will be able to handle his power.

Well...

Gohan isn't satisfied with the small fighting area, but Dabura
doesn't care. Unfortunately, Babidi agrees with Gohan and
changes the place to a rural mountainous region better suited
for fighting.

Without shilly-shallying, Gohan begins fighting without turning
into a super saiyan. The fight barely begins but then, for
some reason, FUNi chose to interrupt the beginning punch from
Gohan.

I really was disappointed at this. There was no need for
the pause and when it returned, it showed Goten and Trunks.
Why?

Anyways...

The fight starts, and Dabura starts to whip Gohan all over.
He even sends a blue energy attack at Gohan's body that he
barely dodges. Thank goodness, because it ends up slicing
off the mountaintop behind him.

Soon, Gohan realizes that he needs to turn super saiyan,
so sure enough he does.

The real fight is about to begin.

Stay tuned...

The Review

Animation

Not something I want to brag about today. The scenes were
sort of so-so. The majority of the episode took place at the
tournament so we didn't really have a chance to see it at
its best. However, even when the fight between Dabura and
Gohan began, there still was no change. Dabura may have looked
quite powerful, but what about Gohan? He is, after all, supposed
to be one of, if not the most powerful being on Earth.

It sure didn't seem like it. :(

Music

Ok. Let's get one thing straight. Lately, the music has
been below average, sometimes worse, and today was no exception.
I don't think music is as an important aspect to the show
as, lets say: animation or plot. What do you think?

(Poll)-Do you think the music of Dragonball Z has become
less recognizable lately?

a. Yes

b. No

c. Music?

d. It's fine.

Dialogue

Well, I thought that the fight was supposed to start today,
but I guess I was wrong. (I often make that mistake.) So,
instead of a killer, fast-paced show, we got another "filler"
episode that preludes what is to come.

In terms of how good it was, it wasn't.

The bland speeches by Hercule and Number 18 were just nauseating.
C'mon! Is that the best translation that can be done? I thought
that the scenes at the ship were a little improvement over
the tournament but just by a hair. The Supreme Kai hasn't
said much, and the rest of them haven't done much except wait
a lot. Blah.

Plot

No plot whatsoever. The exception to that sentence is the
beginning of the fight on Babidi's ship. Even that, however,
is not that great. There wasn't a big introduction of drama
like there was in the Cell Games or the fight between Frieza
and Goku. It just started, and quite frankly, I thought it
sucked.